1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an optical display panel system using optical fibers, particularly to the light-emitting-end mounting mechanism in said optical display panel system wherein the light-emitting end portions can be readily mounted through an optical display panel.
2. Description of Prior Art
Optical display panel systems of the general type have been constructed of a light source, a bundle of optical fibers consisting of a large number of optical fiber elements which are bound together at one end to form a light-receiving end and are arbitrarily scattered at the other end to form an array of light-discharging ends, and an optical display panel body used to support each of the light-discharging ends in said bundle of optical fibers. Concerning optical display panels of this type, on the other hand, processes have been developed for mounting a light diffusing means onto each of the light-discharging-end portions of optical fibers so as to diffuse the rays of light transmitted from the light-discharging ends of the optical fibers, unaffected by directivity and in wider angles. In such optical panel systems wherein a light diffusing means is attached to each of the light-discharging end portions of the optical fibers, said light-emitting ends of the optical fibers must be coupled to an optical panel body. If it is desired to mount the light-emitting ends of optical fibers through the optical display panel, it has traditionally been required to insert the light-discharging end of an optical fiber into the mounting hole in an optical display panel from therebehind and caulking the space between said mounting hole and the circumference of the optical fiber. On the other hand, in optical display panel systems wherein said light-diffusing means is mounted, the light-discharging ends are allowed to project beyond the surface of the optical display panel body, and the optical fibers are secured into the optical display panel body, with said light-diffusing means being securely attached onto said projected portions of the light-discharging ends. As will be seen from the ways in which optical fibers are utilized, in neither of the aforestated cases, the light-diffusing means can be adhered in advance, and hence these schemes were both exceedingly unreasonable in that painstaking adhesion work was involved in the construction of such optical display panel system.